macleodm3

There was a nice staggered seating Cozy project for sale... perhaps a year ago. Looked like nice work in the photos. If you could find this still for sale, it might be a good starting point for you.

The category is “For Sale (or for free)”. The plane is not free... asking price is or was $14,500.

Looks Good from here!!! Will it need to be painted... or do you think you'll fly it first? I would get everything safe, then do some flying before making it all look new.... do you have any local EZ experienced people to help?

Really? Why would you need or want that?

Go to the CG products website, click on products, then Cozy (or Long-EZ), then scroll to Chapter 13.

Cozy Girrrls (CG Products) sell adjustable rudder pedals for the Cozy and EZ.

That is great news! I was quoting a post from 2009... thank you for correcting my false statements.

Please learn about nose gear shimmy (where the front wheel wobbles back and forth at a high rate.... like a worn out shopping cart wheel). I did a google search for "Long-EZ Shimmy" and found the following information (and there is other information out there too.... this is just one example of what to look for). NOSE WHEEL SHIMMY (From CP34, Page 9, October, 1982) We have cautioned EZ pilots about nose gear shimmy damper adjustment in the last two Canard Pushers, yet we still have EZs losing their nose wheels. It is a fact that your nose wheel fork will fail if you experience shimmy on landing or take off. It is also a fact, that if the friction damper is correctly adjusted, you will not have shimmy at all. The nose wheel fork will not fail due to a normal landing. It is very strong, the original fork has been grossly overloaded to the point of failing the NG15A casting and/or the 1/8" aluminum plate on the forward face of the NG15A casting. Yet the fork was not damaged. This has occurred several times. We are satisfied that the fork will fail if it shimmies. Therefore if you keep the friction damper adjusted and check it regularly, you will not have this problem. Every time you extend the nose gear, just before you get into your EZ, hold the nose wheel clear of the ground and use your foot on the trailing edge of the nose wheel tire to check the friction. You will soon get calibrated. You should have to push or pull 3 to 5 lbs. to pivot the fork. When taking off, try to rotate positively, hold it down until you have the proper speed, then rotate smoothly. Try to keep the nose wheel from touching back down or skipping, this is when shimmy is most likely, at the instant of a light touchdown. The same applies to landing. Hold the nose wheel off until you are traveling as slowly as possible. Then let the nose down and hold it down with forward stick. Do not let it skip. Avoid nose wheel touchdown at very high speed. If you follow these simple steps you will minimize any chance of shimmy and therefore the chances of losing a nose wheel. The prototype Long-EZ still has the original thin wall fork and with over 680 hours, has never experienced any shinny. N26MS has almost 500 hours with probably more take off and landings than the prototype and it too has not had nose gear problems. Dick and Jeana have high time Long-EZ with over 700 hours and also have not had shimmy or nose wheel failures. There is a lesson here - get into the habit of pre-flighting your nose gear. Keep your friction damper correctly adjusted.

There are no plans or kit to do this, so it would need to be drawn up on paper first. It wouldn't be easy, but if building an E-racer and including this from the beginning, it should be something that could be accomplished. On the e-racer... there will be some issues to overcome. I may be wrong but I think that plans are not currently for sale and that you also need a set of Long-EZ plans to fill in the blanks because the plans do not include all the details needed. Major parts, such as landing gear, are no longer available. Have you tried searches online such as "E-racer vs Cozy" and "E-racer vs Long-EZ"? There are some good discussions about how to get started with an E-racer project.

Comparisons like that are more or less builders ribbing each other. Another analogy is that an EZ is a touring motorcycle and the Cozy is a Porsche 911(tiny back seats), the E-Racer is a (insert 2 seat sports car of your choice here). There is some very good actual flight testing out there that is more appropriate to use when considering which airplane to build. Do an online search for "CAFE Aircraft Performance Report" and read about the Varieze, the Cozy, and others. Yes, you can use it... its possible. Carbon fiber is the wrong material. Its not better or worse... its wrong. When the instructions tell you to use 10 layers of UNI fiberglass to make a structural part, how will you know how many plies of carbon fiber to use? You'll need to reverse engineer the entire plane... and it could end up being heavier.

Have you considered building a Cozy MKIV? Its the biggest plans built canard... and the plans are excellent. It takes a million years to build one of these things.... its fun, but a really big project.... no kidding, its ALOT of work. How about for now build the fiberglass practice parts and see how much fun it is? Then try some carbon fiber parts....

Unfortunately this can't be done... there are lots of little changes you can make to an EZ, but changing the canard/pilot/wing/engine balance will prevent the airplane from flying properly. Thankfully there is already alot of baggage room in a Long-EZ... the parts of the wing that are closest to the fuselage (the strakes) are hollow and open to the inside of the plane for baggage. Also, its very easy to add baggage pods under the wings (there are kits for this). Two people can camp out of a Long-EZ. Most completed EZ's weigh around 950 lbs. Don't know what the fuselage weighs with no other parts. The airplane is an engineered system that uses three different weaves of fiberglass that the engineer chose as the best material. Changing these primary materials to a different product would have many undesirable consequences (and it may or may not weigh less) . The lightest, strongest, and fastest EZ's ever built kept is simple and followed the plans. There was a canard kitplane that used some carbon fiber... the Berkut. The design included carbon fiber from the ground up (but I think it was still mostly fiberglass).

That is FANTASTIC! Perhaps the high selling prices of the RV homebuilts are having some impact on nicely finished EZ's such as Nate's and that Varieze listed for $50k. So glad that the EZ fleet has what appears to be some resurgence in value, at least with the ones with newer finishes, interiors, and engines. There was a Berkut at Oshkosh for sale.... advertised for around $350,000.

Through the years, we have watched good friends here on our forums build excellent airframes and then install non-aviation engines. We have learned that adapting any modern non-aviation engine to an airplane has many more unknown problems than any reasonable person should expect.... there are so many differences between an engine in a car and an airplane. So many failure modes... its actually very surprising. I would have thought we could bolt on a Subaru or Mazda or Chevy and just go fly (using safe hardware and wiring practices of course). It just isn't so....

Panel- $15k Engine- $20k Project- $20k It probably cost $80k, but since its all secondhand parts the street value will be less than that.

Our country is bigger than your worries.... we have huge natural resources, best workforce, best government on the planet. Your worries will only kill you prematurely, so enjoy the best time to be alive in the best place.

Well... you got 1 ride... and if you know you want one, no need to wait for another ride. I never got one before building...

Yeah... a canard is a good airplane for a low time pilot. BUT... its needs to be canard that flies well (most do) and that was built correctly. Our community has several excellent resources to help you find an excellent aircraft! 2 Seat - Long-EZ or Varieze 3 Seat - Cozy 3 4 Seat - Cozy MKIV Larger 4 Seat - Defiant or Velocity

A flying Long-EZ for $25k... This looks like an excellent deal in NC... this one still available? For an extra $10k it could have new upholstery, new G3X panel, ADS-B.... wow.... I should have bought instead of built!! https://raleigh.craigslist.org/avo/d/stovall-rutan-long-ez-aircraft/6845577979.html

Good Job Kent! Not many of us patient enough to build a prop.... way to keep that homebuilding spirit alive! After you get done testing you new prop, you are welcome to fly up here to Wise, VA and try out my Light Speed Engineering prop... its a 68x80 that Klaus says should work well on a strong and clean Cozy. I am curious if I'll get to use it as my test flying prop and I'd like to see some real world results before attempting first flight.

I have followed along online with the construction and flight testing of this Long-EZ for several years and it is a very very nice looking plane with many nice touches. Where other EZ's have homebuilt looking components, this EZ looks like it was factory built... the details look engineered and like they came off an assembly line. Lots of flight testing has been done, and issues were discovered and corrected (all shown in the build log) so there shouldn't be any bad surprises. If I were to consider purchasing this airplane, I'd need to know how much warranty is on the new UL engine. Other than that.... its expensive, but it looks expensive.

Thanks for the photos and ideas... what is wrapped around your CHT probe leads? I don't have that wrap... is it needed? On your silicone wrap on the cylinders... what kind of silicone... the plumbing stuff in the caulk tube? Is it used with BID / UNI? What keeps it in place? I've never seen an EGT probe that close to the exhaust port! Do you get descent service life there? (not saying its bad, just wondering) Looks like you have 2 LSE ignition systems..... that correct?

Here is a recent page... http://ljosnes.no/cozy/useful-links

Welcome! There really is a alot of online support...but the support is spread out in different places. I recommend the following resources in no particular order... This forum Canard Aviators (yahoo email list with searchable database) COZY Builders Mailing List (google group list with searchable database) Rutan LongEz and VariEze Facebook group Cozy MKIV Pilots and Builders Facebook group Vans Airforce online forum (daily discussions involving engines, instruments, wiring... very active group good for all homebuilders). Central States Association Squadron III Newsletter Check out the ones you want.... the great thing is that the plans for your Long-EZ are excellent, and you don't need online support to finish. Andrew

What engine is recommended by Velocity for your airplane? Have you considered buying one of those and having it installed? I think the yokes in the Velocity are nice.... get that engine in and fly it like you stole it.